I am writing to tell you about my niece in the hope that I can help other families become more aware of the risks associated with gastric bypass surgery.

My niece had her bypass surgery done in 2003 and following that had one problem after another. She had wanted so badly to be thin and accepted that she would have done it come hell or high water. She had the surgery, and then came a multitude of problems. Ulcers formed; she had constant stomach pain, nausea and vomiting and eventually had to have a feeding tube placed.

When the feeding tube was removed, a piece of the tube was left inside her. Again, she complained of pain and the surgeon said it was just in her head. Yet, once in surgery, the piece of tube left behind was found. She had her surgery performed in Portland where she resided. She spent the next three years in and out of the hospital with one problem or another from the surgery. Through all of this suffering, she was able to become a CNA and eventually earn her EMT certificate. It was when she became an EMT that she met her companion and boyfriend, and was very happy.

She wasn’t finding much support from her surgeon. He continued to feel most of her problems were in her head. She sought a second opinion from a surgeon in Boston, who believed there were, indeed, problems there. She was told that if, at any time, she was not feeling well, to come directly back to Boston so that the doctor-surgeon could check her. Before the second opinion in Boston, the surgeon who had done the first surgery ended up doing it all over again. Unfortunately, on the day of her stomach pain, she was unable to get to Boston.

I am aware that much testing goes into this surgery before it is even performed, but do these physicians stress how many people don’t make it from the surgery? Or, perhaps, only focus on the success rate?

Unfortunately, on Sept. 22, my niece passed away at age 26. When they took her into surgery, they were horrified at what they saw. Her intestines had died and the blood supply to the bowel was blocked so subsequently it died too. She had called to see her doctor earlier in the week as she was not feeling well, but was told she could not be seen until Thursday. She started to drive herself to the doctor’s appointment, but had to pull over and call an ambulance because of the tremendous pain she was experiencing.

Once at Maine Medical Center, she was taken into surgery; once she got there, her parents only had a short time to spend with her. That was the last time they spoke. The family was told they (the surgeon and “medical professionals”) would go back into surgery at 6 a.m. the next morning, but unfortunately around midnight, my niece started to crash and was put on life support. The family was told there was nothing that could be done for her. She died that morning.

A recent study by researchers at the University of Washington found that 1 in 50 people dies within one month of having gastric bypass surgery, and the figure increases nearly fivefold if the surgeon is inexperienced.

More than 65,000 people a year have weight-loss surgery. Surgery is recommended for people who are 100 pounds or more overweight. Some of the complications are bleeding, complications resulting from anesthesia or medications, infection, pulmonary problems, stenosis and even death. Risks and potential side effects include vomiting, dumping syndrome, nutritional deficiencies, gallstones, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, increased gas and dizziness.

I think we are a society that shuns overweight people when in fact they are no different that you or I. All of us have struggled with our weight at one time or another during our lifetimes, some of us care and some of us don’t, some of us lose the extra weight and some of us don’t, but we are all the same inside and out. We need to stop making overweight people feel they need to go to drastic measures to become thin. Accept these people for who they are not what they look like.

You don’t expect a 26-year-old to die from stomach surgery. My hope is whoever is contemplating this surgery will think long and hard about the consequences once this is done. You see these surgeries done on the Health Channel and they show you only the lucky ones, not the ones who don’t make it.

I will never forget my niece and still cannot wrap my mind around how this could happen without someone in the medical profession noticing something was wrong. She left behind her mother, father, two sisters, a brother, two nephews and two nieces. She had found the love of her life finally and was looking forward to a future with him.

Please seek all the information you can, research the pros and cons of the operation. Also, think long and hard before jumping into this surgery.

Rest in peace my beautiful niece.

Sandra Constantine McGrath is a resident of Bangor.